Posted at 1:15 AM PT, Jul 25, 1998
Linux will now be tested as a mainstream platform for enterprise-level business applications, with major vendors pledging product or research and development commitments to the operating system.

Oracle will put its Oracle8 database on Linux by late this year and move its applications products to Linux in 1999.

Informix this week began shipping its Informix-SE (Standard Edition) database and ESQL/C development tools for Linux.

Meanwhile, IBM, which says it has completed 90 percent of its DB2 database port to Linux in its laboratories, is still waiting to see how the market progresses before deciding whether to release a product.

And Netscape in spring 1999 will deliver its Netscape Messaging Server and Directory Server on the Linux platform.

Although the new-found recognition has brought cheers from Linux supporters -- who reportedly number 7 million to 10 million -- the viability of Linux as a commercial platform remains to be seen. Cynics are skeptical about the wealth of Linux IT talent, customer support, and applications.

An Informix representative said users have clamored for Linux software products, but the proposition still is a risk.

"We really don't know what the market is," said John Downey, senior marketing manager for Linux at Informix.

Oracle upstaged Informix by announcing Linux support on June 21, which gave the company a one-day advantage. But according to an Oracle spokesman, Microsoft, not Informix, is its real target.

"Linux is more popular than Windows NT for Internet service providers," said Mark Jarvis, senior vice president of marketing at Oracle.

Jarvis' enthusiasm was tempered by the status of Linux as a relative beginner in the enterprise.

"Well, I know it won't be our No. 1 [-selling] platform, and I don't suspect that it will beat NT revenues in the first year," Jarvis said.

One Linux industry spokesman stressed that users have been waiting for relational databases for the Linux OS.

"There's definitely money to be made in Linux," said Jon A. Hall, executive director at Linux International, an association of Linux vendors, in Amherst, N.H.

Linux offers more stability and scales better than Windows NT, and the operating system presents an opportunity for Informix, said an IT manager who has deployed Linux-based systems.

"It's very stable -- very little work has to be done" to administer it, said Paul Falbe, manager of information systems at Cassens Transport, a car transporter in Edwardsville, Ill.

According to an official at Microsoft, the company has no plans to port its SQL Server database to Linux.

"In terms of volume platforms, Linux is not even in the same universe as NT is," said Doug Leland, product manager for SQL Server at Microsoft, in Redmond, Wash.

Another ISV official also stressed opposition to the operating system.

"I would so violently argue against putting any enterprise application on Linux for one reason: There's no service component to Linux -- you're on your own [if you need fixes]," said Adam Thier, vice president of product marketing at Lawson Software, in Minneapolis.

Advocates contend that support options for Linux are growing and that users communicate about maintenance through online user groups.

"Linux is becoming a viable alternative to Windows NT in many markets," said Jamie Thain, president of SBI, an integrator in Bermuda. "As more users pick up the groundswell, Netscape, Oracle, and Informix -- and I imagine many others -- will use it as an alternative."

Oracle Corp., in Redwood Shores, Calif., is at (650) 506-7000 or http://www.oracle.com. Informix Corp., in Menlo Park, Calif., is at (650) 926-6300 or http://www.informix.com. Netscape Communications Corp., in Mountain View, Calif., is at (650) 254-1900 or http://home.netscape.com.

Paul Krill is a senior editor for InfoWorld. Dana Gardner and Stannie Holt contributed to this article.